Profile: Cerie Bullivant

Cerie Bullivant, who has been cleared of breaching his control order, was born in 1982 in Harrogate, north Yorkshire.

The 25-year-old converted to Islam as an adult having been brought up as a Christian - although he did not go to church.

An only child, he moved away with his mother while she was studying for a degree but also spent two years in foster care with different families while still quite young.

He went on to attend Warren Comprehensive School in Chadwell Heath, east London, where he achieved five GCSEs and two A-Levels.

He then worked part time at McDonald's in east London and began a degree at the University of East London in 2001 which he failed to complete.

Mr Bullivant was particularly close to his mother, who at this time suffered from depression and had taken a large overdose.

Although his family had told him to go on to university and not to worry, he was said to have had a lot of "unresolved issues" and never settled, dropping out in January 2002 in his first year.

Not achieving

Mr Bullivant then went to live with his best friend from school in a flat in east London's Seven Kings and worked as a cocktail barman in the Romford area.

For the next two years he had a busy social life and spent every night out with friends. However, after two years he felt he was not achieving anything.

He was jobless from 2004 until his control order was implemented in 2006 but he acted as primary carer for his mother, who had attempted suicide six times, and received benefits on her behalf.

Bullivant was captured on CCTV at Dagenham police station on 21 May

It was after leaving work that he met an old school friend and became a Muslim.

It had a big impact on his life and gave him more focus. He got involved in an east London youth organisation, which helped young people escape from gang and drug culture.

He put on football tournaments and started studying for his Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) qualification.

He told the jury that it was around this time in 2005 that he had tried to travel to Syria with friend Ibrahim Adam to learn Arabic but had been stopped by airport security.

He believed he was stopped because Mr Adam was the brother of convicted terrorist Anthony Garcia.

His control order was imposed in 2006.

Marriage breakdown

In March 2007, Mr Bullivant began a BSc in mental health nursing at the Havering campus of the South Bank University and married his wife at an Islamic ceremony the same month.

But he failed to sign in under the conditions of his control order between 22 May and the 18 June, before giving himself in at a London police station.

Mr Bullivant claimed he only agreed to abscond at this time with Lamine and Ibrahim Adam, Garcia's brothers, because he thought he was going to "collapse under the pressure" of living under the order.

His mother told him the order was having a bad effect on her, while Mr Bullivant's relationship with his newly-married wife, who was born in Kuwait and later moved to Saudi Arabia and the UK, had collapsed and his university course was in trouble.

However, Mr Bullivant told the court that by the time of absconding, he no longer had a relationship with his wife or her family.

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